1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



375 



interested; and if the shaker stops for a 

 moment they run in at the pollen, backing 

 sharply out of the way when sne sets to work 

 again. Centuries ago this peculiarity was 

 noticed by Aristotle. "But when," says he, 

 " they arrive at the hive they shake them- 

 selves, and three or four bees follow each of 

 them." Thus the translation before me 

 reads; but in the original the word used 

 means they shake off, and from the context 

 this seems to refer to the usual pollen load, 

 so that the writer connects the presence of 

 pollen with the shaking. 



Whether or not I have solved an interesting 

 problem in bee-life, the explanation offered 

 seems to me fairly reasonaole. The pollen 

 might well be in one way or other a source 

 of irritation. If, in support of the wax-scale 

 theory, it be objected that only young bees, 

 the natural wax-producers, are seen shaking, 

 I would reply that old bees seldom gather 

 pollen, and that, as they have lost or worn 

 down many of their hairs, it would be less 

 likely to adhere to their bodies; moreover, 

 experience may have taught them either to 

 avoid the obstruction or to endure it patiently. 



Leeford, England, Aug. 12, 190S. 



NITROGENOUS FOOD FOR BEES. 



Meal as a Substitute for Pollen. 



BY T. P. ROBINSON. 



In the April 15th number the editor gives 

 an account of bees annoying neighbors in 

 seach of nitrogenous food which they wish 

 to use as a substitute for pollen. Some five 

 3'ears ago one of my renters, who lives some 

 300 yards from my apiary of 100 colonies, saw 

 fit to feed cotton-seed meal and hulls to his 

 milch cows during the winter; and as the 

 bees fly quite a good deal here during Jan- 

 uary and February they invaded his cow- 

 troughs and barn, and carried off quite a 

 goocfdeal of it, I judge, for they worked on 

 the meal for several weeks. This neighbor 

 was a good fellow, and never said a word 

 about it until months afterward, then told 

 me of it. I told him that I was sorry for it, 

 and that the bees were in search of the meal 

 to use for pollen. The bees never interfered 

 with his stock, for he milked at night and in 

 the morning when the bees were at home. 

 I always sweetened this neighbor with sev- 

 eral buckets of honey, which kept his tem- 

 per in proper trim. 



This brings to mind another instance in 

 which the bees invaded a barn belonging to 

 a Bohemian. The cause of the bees' invasion 

 was oat and millet meal, with wheat bran 

 added, which he was feeding. On finding 

 the bees swarming around in the barn and 

 all over the feed, the foolish fellow decided 

 to whip the bees out and run them off at the 

 noon hour, when the work stock were in. 

 This rough usage, together with a tendency to 

 rob, so enraged the bees that thev fell to 

 stinging every thing in sight, and baclly stung 

 his stock before he could run them from the 

 lot. As good luck would have it, the bees 



belonged to the man himself, who promptly 

 sulphured them that night. He knew noth- 

 ing of bees at all, yet kept six or eight box 

 hives to get honey for his own use. I knew 

 the man, and was told this about two years 

 after it happened. 



Since my own experience as above narrat- 

 ed, I have kept a supply of wheat bran in 

 some building accessible to the bees every 

 winter. During this winter I kept a supply 

 of wheat bran in my hive factory within a foot 

 of the saw-table, right at the door, where the 

 bees would have a straight flight to their 

 home. They would swarm over this bran 

 every fine day in January and February, and 

 the first part of March. I would stir up the 

 bran so as to bring the finer parts of it to 

 the surface so the bees could get at it. 



Bartlett, Texas. 



BEES ANNOYING NEIGHBORS 



By Working on Oatmeal. 



BY GEO. N. COULSON. 



About the 15th of last March a lady living 

 two blocks from my apiary called on me, 

 and, ins a rather excited manner, requested 

 me to come quick and take my bees away 

 from her house, stating that, they had taken 

 possession of a box on her back porch, and 

 she was afraid to allow the children to go 

 out there to play. I told her that the bees 

 must surely belong to some one else, as I 

 thought mine were all at home; but when 

 she reminded me that I was the only one 

 who had bees in or near town I had to prom- 

 ise to investigate; and on accompanying her 

 I found bees pouring in and out of an open 

 box that would hold about two bushels. As 

 the good lady insisted on their immediate re- 

 moval from her porch I seized an old horse- 

 blanket, threw it over the box, and carried 

 all out into the street, telling her I would re- 

 turn the box in the evening after the bees 

 left, which I did, and an examination of the 

 box showed that it contained damaged oat- 

 meal that her husband, who was a clerk in a 

 large grocery, had brought home to use for 

 chicken feed. I kept my bees at home by 

 putting out a plentiful supply of oatmeal 

 and graham flour that the bees seemed to 

 enjoy for several days.| 



SHAKING ENERGY INTO BEES. 

 I have also had a little accidental experi- 

 ence in shaking, or, rather, jolting some en- 

 ergy into bees. About the last days of Jan- 

 uary I bought an apiary of 28 colonies of hy- 

 brid bees. They were hauled in a common 

 lumber-wagon a distance of seven miles over 

 a rough road, then shipped by express over 

 150 miles, and opened up alongside of bee?, 

 both hybrids and Italians, that had been win- 

 tered on their summer stands. It has ever 

 since been very plain that the bees that were 

 shipped are out earlier in the morning and 

 later at night, and in every way display more 

 working energy than the bees tnat were 

 undisturbed. This has been so marked that 

 I have asked of the Oklahoma bee-keepers, 



